Police probe two North Stamford break-ins

Updated 8:55 pm, Thursday, January 31, 2013

STAMFORD -- A break-in discovered by a homeowner Thursday morning north of the Merritt Parkway has police wondering if it is related to a Wednesday burglary, where a man confronted two or three men after they kicked open a door to his home.

Just before 6:40 a.m. Thursday a man returned to his Dogwood Lane home to find someone pitched a boulder through his rear sliding glass door, Sgt. Andrew Gallagher said. The homeowner, who had been at the house Wednesday afternoon, found the house ransacked.

Stolen were two handguns and a Boston Red Sox autographed baseball, Gallagher said.

Less than a mile away just before 9 p.m. Tuesday, an East Ridge Road man told police he stopped two or three men from burglarizing his home.

He was sleeping with his son waiting for his wife to get home when he heard a noise. The man went out into the hallway expecting to see his wife, but instead saw a man bounding up the stairs to the second floor, Gallagher said.

The man confronted the stranger, who yelled down to his friends, "get out," Gallagher said.

Another man ran out the back door while the man on the stairs ran out the front; the homeowner said a third man may have been standing in the doorway when he surprised the intruder.

The man, a licensed handgun owner, grabbed a weapon and retreated into his son's room, waiting until police arrived and checked the home, Gallagher said.

Gallagher said there have not been many burglaries north of the Merritt Parkway in a while.

"We haven't had any kind of a ring operating up there in recent memory," Gallagher said. "Obviously, we are taking this seriously.

"On Tuesday night, the victim's house was dark. And with it being in close proximity to the Merritt Parkway, it appears to be a crime of opportunity. They didn't expect to find anyone in the house."